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Malpas

With its charming black and white cottages and elegant Georgian houses Malpas is one of the most delightful old villages in Cheshire though its Norman-French name implies that it once lay in difficult terrain – “mal passage”. Of the Norman castle that once protected this hill-top border town only a grassy mound behind the red sandstone church survives. Approached through 18th century gates attributed to Vanbrugh, St Oswald’s Church is lavishly decorated with a striking array of gargoyles but is most notable for the splendour of its interior. The nave roof is brilliant with gilded bosses and winged angels, all created around 1480, and there are two magnificent chapels separated from the nave by delicately carved screens. The Brereton chapel dates from 1522 and contains an alabaster effigy of Sir Randal Brereton, in the armour of a medieval knight, together with his lady. Across the aisle, the Cholmondeley chapel commemorates Sir Hugh Cholmondeley who died in 1605.

The Cholmondeley family owned huge estates around Malpas and it was they who built the town’s attractive old almshouses and a school in the 18th century. They lived at Cholmondeley Castle, a few miles to the north-east. The Gothic-style castle is not open to the public but the 800 acres of Cholmondeley Castle Garden are. The gardens are planted with a variety of acid-loving plants including rhododendrons, hydrangeas, magnolias, camellias, dogwoods, mahonias and viburnums. There’s a lovely Temple Garden with a rockery, lake and islands, and a Silver Garden planted with distinctive silver-leafed plants as a commemoration of Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee.